


Thrice Defied

by burneraccount1234



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death, F/M, Gen, Minor Character Death, Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter), Pre-Canon, Prophecy, Weddings, Wizarding Wars (Harry Potter), Wizarding World (Harry Potter)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-15
Updated: 2020-10-15
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:12:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27031723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/burneraccount1234/pseuds/burneraccount1234
Summary: According to the Prophecy of Sybill Trelawney, the Chosen One will be born to those who have thrice defied the Dark Lord. This is the story of Lily and James' wedding and their final defiance prior to the birth of the Boy Who Lived.
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	Thrice Defied

**Author's Note:**

> “The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches…born to those who have thrice defied him…born as the seventh month dies, and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have powers the Dark Lord knows not…and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives…the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies”

“You’re a vision,” James breathed into Lily’s ear, snaking his arms around her from behind. Lily smiled despite herself, leaning into him and closing her eyes. The room’s sole window lay open, a gentle breeze playing through the room and carrying with it the warmth of the magically modified winter air. A moment of peace. A moment of relief. She let the feeling embrace her even as James did.

“A vision you’re not supposed to have yet,” she shot back playfully, tilting her head slightly to look up at him. “It’s bad luck, Potter.” She held her gaze at his eyes, trying not to take in how handsome he looked. Reds and golds chased one another in shimmering threads around the slender form of his Sherwani. She even thought he might have attempted to comb his hair, though, as always, it appeared to have been a fruitless gesture, sticking up every which way as it always did.

“Only with the Muggles, Evans,” James teased, his dark eyes sparkling. He smiled down at her, then kissed her once, swiftly and softly. She disentangled herself from him, turning to face her fiancé. James frowned. “What is it?”

Lily leaned her head against his shoulder, and his arms enveloped her once more. She felt silly for having thought this, and even sillier to believe it worthy of mentioning to James, who would surely laugh, but she couldn’t shake the feeling. With a shaky breath, she said, “Don’t you think we might need all the luck we can get? I don’t want to risk it. Especially not now.”

Her hand instinctually lifted to press against her stomach. The slightest of bumps met her resistance, which Lily hoped no one would notice in her dress. She imagined—though with no real belief—that she could feel a tiny heartbeat fluttering against her fingertips. Lily Evans wasn’t sure she believed in luck. Mostly, she thought, she believed in skill and nerve, in creating a destiny that you want to see for yourself and in the consequences of doing so. All the same, she couldn’t bear the thought of leaving her child alone in this world, not with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named striking out with progressively more boldness. She wasn’t sure whether she more feared this or the prospect of raising a child in such times, afraid of losing him or her at any moment, afraid of teaching goodness in a world so steeped in darkness.

James smiled at her, pulling his right hand away from her back for a moment and removing his glasses. “There,” he said, pulling her closer to him. “Luck is restored, Evans. I can’t see how beautiful the bride is, just the barest glow of her radiance.”

Sometimes Lily wasn’t sure if she should hit him or kiss him.

Still, it was difficult to suppress a smile when James set his sights on one. She rolled her eyes at him, pulling away slightly. “You better get out of here before you see the barest glow of a hex coming at you.” But she pulled him down for a quick kiss all the same, before brandishing a finger threateningly at him, smiling despite herself.

James held his hands up in surrender, squinting to see her as he backed slowly out of the room, glasses still pinched in the fingers of his right hand. Lily swiped her wand up from its resting place on a nearby table, waving it after him, and the door swung shut, bumping him over the threshold. From the other side, she could hear the muffled sounds of James laughing.

Lily crossed the room to the window, glancing out at the small garden below, which still buzzed with the energy of last-minute preparations for the wedding. A tiny wizard Lily identified as her former Charms teacher, Professor Flitwick, bounced along the aisle, coaxing glittering silver and gold flowers from the earth with an enchantment. Alice Longbottom paced through the seating area, orbs of scarlet and gold growing from the tip of her wand and hovering at varying heights and intervals. In the front row, already seated, Lily could see the backs of James’s parents, talking animatedly to Remus. And, just on the other side of a tall hedge, the hulking shape of Alastor Moody stood at the edge of the property, wand raised, the air rippling in front of him as he layered ever more defensive enchantments over the event. Her heart sank as she found herself wondering who was on guard tonight, set to patrol the perimeter while the others celebrated. Sirius had refused point-blank to allow her or James involvement in this detail, claiming that they ought to take one night away from the Order to celebrate themselves.

It had crossed her mind, of course, that perhaps starting a family right now was the wrong decision. They’d narrowly escaped the Dark Lord twice now, and she could not even dare to hope for another miracle of that magnitude. How much longer would Diagon Alley be safe? Hogwarts? How much longer could they live in the open, with the Death Eaters growing in number by the day? She and James ought to continue to fight, not vanish to raise a child. They, like the rest of the Order of the Phoenix, had an obligation to the future. Making the world safe again should have taken priority. Surely then, when the fear had abated, the time would be right.

But she could not deny herself the thrill that burst in her chest whenever she considered the tiny life growing inside of her. She already loved her son or daughter more than she dared to admit. She loved the idea of having a family again, her and James and the baby. Her parents passing had left her feeling quite alone. Her sister, Petunia, was not speaking to her, and had, in fact, returned her wedding invitation without so much as a note.

So, while the timing could have perhaps been better, it could not have felt more perfect.

Taking a deep breath, Lily stepped back and closed the window. Gripping her wand in her hand, she squeezed her eyes tight shut, thinking hard about her favorite date with James; he had taken her to her favorite muggle amusement park after hours, and together they enchanted the rides to work and charmed the carnival games to play against one another. She tried to close herself around that feeling, softly but firmly, like one might hold a small animal they were afraid to crush.

_“Expecto Patronum,”_ she whispered, barely more than a breath. Her eyes opened slowly, as if she might be afraid of losing this feeling if she looked up too fast, as if she might scare away her happiness, but that was foolish, and she knew. The silver doe before her shone with the light of her own joy. It stepped toward her slowly, soundlessly, and she reached out and lay a hand against its head. She breathed deeply, trying to soak in the happiness even as it came off her Patronus in luminous waves.

_We are alive,_ she thought. _We are happy._ She twisted the small silver pendant around her neck—a lily, James’s first gift to her—and felt the words to be true.

***

“James Potter was one of the most troublesome and self-concerned students to ever enter my tutelage,” Professor McGonagall announced, speaking to the crowd of guests as though they were another class of transfiguration students. The guests, many of whom had been just that, remained engaged and silent as if they feared a detention. “Lily Evans, on the other hand, was one of my most gifted and humble students, and always a pleasure to have in class. It seems only natural, then, that their union brings us here tonight.”

Several people chuckled at this, though none louder than Sirius, James’s best man, who let out an enormous bark of laughter from his perch on the table behind James and slapped his best friend on the back. Lily gave her new husband a smile of mock triumph, but James merely pulled himself up close to her, kissing her cheeks everywhere he could reach. “Yeah, I know how bloody brilliant you are, Evans,” he said, before launching another volley of kisses.

“That’s Potter, now,” she corrected him, pulling away and cupping his face in her hands. He beamed at her, his smile blindingly bright and so wide she felt certain he could no longer see her. Something warm and bright expanded inside of her chest, and she felt full in a way she never had before.

“As this is your occasion,” Professor McGonagall continued, and the pair of them blushed vibrantly, pulling themselves back to the present and their composure, “I will not give you detention for interrupting my speech.”

James lifted his champagne flute to her, smiling as he leaned back in his chair. “Cheers, Professor!”

“You all well know what a wonderful young couple we celebrate tonight. They are daring and brave, fine people, through and through. And what better spot of light in such troubled times than the celebration of young love. I’ll leave the true speeches to Professor Dumbledore, but I’d like to say, if I may, that there are few Gryffindor students in recent memory who embody our attributes as whole heartedly as Lily and James. I wish you all the happiness in the world.”

Applause split the air like thunder, Sirius whooping loudly over it all. Professor McGonagall lowered herself regally into her seat, a small smile curving her lips. She clinked her glass against Remus’s and downed the contents in a single gulp, drawing even more cheering from the crowd, Lily and James adding their voices to the mix. A tinkling of glass drew the attention of the crowd once more, and everyone swiveled their heads to get a good look at the walrus-like shape of Professor Slughorn, whose cheeks were rosy in a way Lily suspected had nothing to do with embarrassment.

“Well now, what to say, what to say,” Slughorn began, but he never finished this thought.

A loud _crack!_ set the audience murmuring. Then another, and another, firing off like gunshots. The silence in the room felt like a physical force, pressing in on Lily from all sides. Several people had slipped their wands out of their pockets, glancing around nervously. Slughorn, all thought of toasts forgotten, sank back into his seat as though hoping to slide through it to safety. The tension was unbearable. There had been no warning from the guard, no sound of a struggle. Lily began to scan the faces of the guests, wondering if she could discern who might be missing; wondering if, even now, someone might be dying in protection of her.

With a jolt, she grabbed James’s arm and whispered, “James! Peter is missing!”

_Bang!_

Six jets of light flew through the tent, all aiming in different directions. Several caught guests by surprise. Frank Longbottom was blasted off his feet, wand soaring through the air; Eleanor Abbott took the full force of a vivid green curse to the chest and dropped to the floor, eyes glassy and unblinking. James threw an arm around Lily’s shoulder and pulled her to the floor, covering her as much as he could. She could feel him fumbling in his pockets for his wand even as she reached into her magically expanded bag for her own. Screams and thunderous footsteps shook the tent; it was hard to think for the noise.

“Stay here,” James whispered.

“Like hell,” Lily shot back furiously. The pair locked eyes, and James nodded.

“Together then. Three…two…”

The pair launched into a standing position, back to back, non-dominant hands laced tightly together. The tent itself had vanished, presumably charmed away by one of the masked figures now surrounding the wedding guests. Their breath plumed before them like smoke in the winter air. Curses blasted tables into the air, bounced off shield charms, cut through flesh. The war would not be ignored, not for a single night.

Lily sent a Stinging jinx at a nearby Death Eater with his wand trained on Frank’s back, then a Stunning spell for good measure. The man collapsed in a heap, but she had no time to see if Frank recovered his wand, as another masked figure launched a curse her way and she barely got her wand up in time to deflect it. Nearby, Lily saw Remus shoot a jet of blue light over one shoulder as he lurched over bodies toward James’s parents. He ducked, barely avoiding a curse, then grabbed each of them by the shoulder and Disapparated. Lily exhaled in relief. At least someone made it to safety. Maybe Remus could reach Dumbledore…

“We have to get out of here,” James muttered, spinning his wand so that the silver and gold flowers Flitwick had enchanted wrapped themselves tightly around a pair of struggling Death Eaters.

“Funnily enough, I hadn’t thought of that,” Lily replied sarcastically, eyes darting around in search of a plan.

“If I turn the vase on that table into a Portkey—”

“Do you expect me to leave everyone here to die for us?”

A broad-shouldered Death Eater grabbed for Professor Slughorn, who blasted him off with a look of intense discomfort, gave Lily a tiny wave of apology, and disappeared. Nearby, someone shouted, “Coward!” Lily spun to see Sirius leap onto a table, firing curses at two enemies at once, his long hair smoking slightly at the ends.

_“Now!”_ Lily said, squeezing James’s hand, and the pair each shot off in a different direction, away from the center of the commotion. Remus appeared at the far edge of the property, running toward Lily with his wand drawn, but there was no sign of the other two; he must have gotten them to safety before returning, Lily thought, a wave of appreciation toward him swelling in her chest. She turned back toward the fighting, scanning the crowd for James but unable to find him anywhere.

“This is hardly the time for a reunion, Bella,” Sirius said through gritted teeth. Lily turned to see Sirius parry a curse from his remaining opponent, now unmasked. Her long dark hair swung wildly as she dueled. She laughed coldly, the beauty in her face distorted by cruelty and mania.

“Is that any way to talk to family, little cousin?” she called back mockingly, and this time her curse slipped in under his guard, freezing his muscles into rigidity. Her eyes grew wide with triumph as she let out a horrible cackle, wand raised to deliver the final blow. Lily flew forward in a fury, forgoing her wand and raising her fist.

“It’s my _wedding,_ you horrid bitch!” she shouted. Bellatrix turned in surprise, but had no time to switch her aim before Lily’s fist smashed hard into her left cheekbone, sending her stumbling away. Lily glanced quickly up at Sirius, wondering if she could figure out a counter-curse in the middle of the madness. She didn’t think she’d ever seen this curse, but wasn’t sure she could hold off the Death Eaters and move a fully immobilized Sirius Black at the same time. No sooner had this thought occurred, however, than Professor McGonagall Apparated beside Sirius’s frozen form, grabbing him by the shoulder and pressing the tip of her wand to his chest. She muttered something that Lily could not hear, then the pair of them vanished into thin air.

_“Tarantallegra!”_ Alice’s voice shouted, and Lily turned just in time to see Belltrix’s legs fly out from under her in a wild dance, forcing her to lose her balance and sending the curse no doubt meant for Lily flying harmlessly into the air. The Death Eater looked murderously at the other witch.

“Bloodtraitor!” Bellatrix shouted, turning her own wand to her legs and stilling them instantly. “Protecting a mudblood! How dare you attack your own kind!”

Alice answered by sending three curses one after the other: red, blue, and red again. Bellatrix barely blocked them in time, losing ground with each Shield Charm she cast.

_“Avada Kedavra!”_ Bellatrix roared, but Alice sidestepped the jet of green light with a calm ease. Lily thought she could hear Bellatrix’s teeth grinding against one another. She raised her own wand to join Alice, but felt someone catch her arm as she did so. Then, with a sudden rushing, squeezing sensation, Lily found herself at the edge of the property, watching Alice from afar. Remus stood calmly beside her, releasing her arm.

Bellatrix howled in the distance as Alice disarmed her, then Summoned a tangle of ropes to ensnare her. Her body, squirming like a larva against her bonds, rose high into the air and remained there, suspended above the battle. Lily heard her raining curses down upon Alice, but it was no use. Finally able to breathe again, the reality of what had just happened hit Lily full force.

“What did you do that for?” she demanded, rounding on him. “I could’ve helped!”

“Alice is an Auror, Lily,” he said calmly. “She can handle herself. If one of Bellatrix’s stray curses had hit you, however, there would be little Alice could’ve done. And how long would the other Death Eaters have let you stand in the middle of the action without cursing you while your back was turned?”

Lily’s anger abated slightly, but only slightly. She was not some damsel in need of saving. She was every bit as competent at dueling as every other Order member — more so than many. She could not fault Remus for attempting to protect a friend, however. He followed closely as she began striding back toward the battle.

“Where’s James?” she asked breathlessly.

“Last I saw he was dueling some Death Eater on the other side of the tent.” Remus bit his lip. “Well, where the tent had been, anyway.”

“But he’s alive.” It was not a question, but a statement Lily knew to be true. Remus nodded nonetheless, and Lily quickened her stride. “How many of them are there? Ten? Twenty?”

“I’m not sure.” Lily noted the fear in his voice, inexpertly hidden. “I sent a message to Dumbledore, but as nobody knows where he is at the moment, we shouldn’t count on his help tonight.”

The pair of them walked the perimeter of the property, keeping the battle in sight at all times as they made their way around. Lily’s mind never strayed far from her husband. She had to find him. They had to get out of this. _Together,_ he’d said. She intended for them to survive their own wedding, no matter who decided to crash it.

Unless…

“Lily,” Remus said softly, his voice shaking slightly. Her head snapped to face him, and she immediately tripped headlong over something raised and heavy. She felt something firm beneath her, and pushed her palms against what felt like velvet as she lifted herself up again.

A scream ripped from her throat as she found herself face to face with the empty eyes of Gideon Prewett. She attempted to roll off of him, away from the corpse, and found herself instead climbing on all fours over both him and his brother, Fabian. Panic seized her, gripping her heart like an icy fist. She reached up to check their pulses, her hands shaking. Their skin was still warm, but no heartbeat met her fingertips, no matter how hard she pressed, no matter how much she screamed.

“Get up! _Gideon! Fabian! PLEASE!”_

“Lily…”

“NO!”

Lily’s thoughts reeled, unable to find solid traction, unable to find logic.

_Dead dead dead no they can’t be they can’t be dead._

A hand on her shoulder. She glanced up to find Remus looking down at her. Tears shone in tiny channels down his cheeks, and his shoulders shook with each breath, but his eyes were resolute. His voiced cracked slightly as he spoke. “We’ll come back for them. Right now, we need to—to get the others and go.”

Lily nodded, gripping her wand tightly in one hand and allowing Remus to lift her by the other. Once she was standing, and Remus seemed convinced she could stay upright on her own enough to release his hold on her, she wiped her tears on the back of her hand. She could feel alternating waves of grief and fury coursing through her veins, like ice chasing fire. A deep, steadying breath filled her up, cleared her head on its way out. Nobody else was going to die tonight. Not for her, not here, not tonight. She struck off back toward the fray, Remus at her heels, to make her own way.

From the edge of the property, another hooded figure caught her eye, making its way slowly and deliberately toward the fighting. She felt unease boiling in her stomach and hurried her stride. For a brief moment, she wondered if it might be a dementor, come to aid He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named in terrorizing the Order. But no, that couldn’t be right… The figure was walking, not gliding…

_“Avada Kedavra!”_ shouted a high, cold voice. A jet of green light fired from the hooded figure, accompanied by the sound of a strong wind tearing past. Lily watched in horror as the curse blasted through the air, missing James by inches and catching a guest directly in the chest. The man fell without even a reaction, toppling to the ground as if his body had simply surrendered.

Without a thought, Lily sprinted full speed at the hooded figure, wand raised, firing every curse she could think of at the intruder. If Remus called after her, she didn’t hear it over the blood pounding in her ears. Her fury blinded her to everything except this one task.

The figure batted aside each of her spells easily, though her flow of magic was so consistent that he didn’t have the opportunity to fire back. She pulled up about ten feet from him, panting, and the pair squared up to one another, each waiting for the other’s next move. The figure regarded her from under his hood for a moment, then tossed it back. The face beneath still bore traces of handsomeness, though the nose had begun to flatten, the pupils to mutate within red irises.

Lord Voldemort smiled malevolently at Lily, and she took a step back despite herself. To her right, Lily could sense the fighting slow to a still as all eyes found the Dark Lord. James shouted for her, but she dared not look away from the man before her.

“Well, I see you recognize me,” Voldemort said smoothly. “I’d rather you didn’t, of course, but this is my own error.”

James sprinted toward the pair of them, screaming threats at Voldemort, but the Dark Lord did not seem to care. He raised his wand lazily, lifting James in the air and pulling him forward as though strung on an invisible hook until their faces were only inches apart.

“I’m glad you could join us,” Voldemort whispered, his voice cold and poisonous. “That will make this easier for me. You’ve even done me the courtesy of gathering many of Dumbledore’s men in one place. How very kind of you.”

Lily’s mind felt numb. Her wand remained poised at her side, but fear kept her in place. Her worst fear played out in front of her. She imagined she could feel her baby’s heartbeat trying to catch up to her own, speeding up as if she had just run a marathon. Voldemort smiled and lifted his wand slowly to James’s chest. There was no time to move, no time to think of a spell. She raised her wand and let the first one fly from her wand. A stream of blue flame shot toward Voldemort, who spun so quickly he was a blur, an enormous silver shield appearing before him, his red eyes flashing dangerously.

But it had worked. James fell to the ground in a heap, and a large stag rose from the dark grass, cantering toward her in a zigzag to avoid the curses now flying from both Voldemort and his followers. Lily muttered a charm under her breath and the grass around Voldemort began to shoot up like ropes, lashing out in attempts to subdue him. The stag reached her and melted back into her husband at once, throwing one arm protectively around her and firing an immobilizing jinx from his wand hand. Voldemort waved his wand impatiently, scorching the ground at his feet and dissolving James’s jinx in a haze of white.

Lily risked a glance back toward the Death Eaters, readying a Shield Charm, but found those remaining embroiled in a massive duel with the Longbottoms and Professor McGonagall. The transfiguration professor engaged four at once, a fury exuding from her such that Lily had never imagined.

_“Expelliarmus!”_ James shouted, squeezing her tight, as a burst of green light shot toward them. It collided with his spell several feet away, ricocheting into the grass nearby. Lily squeezed her eyes shut for a second, her hand once again pressing the small bump in her stomach.

“Not like this,” she whispered softly. Desperately, madly, she thought of a spell, pushing all of her hopes and energy into a single incantation.

There was a flash of fire overhead, a single, musical note, and a red-gold feather drifted to the ground between Voldemort and the pair of them. She felt James’s muscles stiffen against her. The fighting to the right died completely. Even Voldemort seemed to have frozen.

Then, loud cracking sounds filled the air as Death Eaters began to Disapparate. McGonagall, Frank, and Alice raced toward where Lily, James, and Voldemort now stood, wands still drawn. Voldemort shot them all one final, contemptuous look, and then he, too, vanished. Lily sank into James, wrapping her arms around his torso and holding tight. He stroked her hair softly, kissing her everywhere he could reach.

“Dumbledore,” he said with a sigh. “Cutting it a tad close that time.”

Lily, pressed tightly to his chest, shook her head. “It’s not him.”

“What?” James asked, pulling back to look at her.

“I faked it. We have to get away from here.” She felt the urgency in her chest, even though she felt certain she had bought them at least a good bit of time. “We have to get to a safe house before he figures it out.” She looked around, anxious to get everyone she loved away from this place, but saw only the four in front of her. “Where is everyone?”

James shrugged. “Made it out. Remus Apparated to me when you charged and I told him to get to safety and check on Sirius. They should be in the safe house with my parents.”

“Right,” Lily said distractedly. “Right.”

“We should go, Lily.” James kept his voice soft, but Lily could feel the panic rising in him. She pulled fully out of his embrace, pressing a hand to his chest.

“No! Not yet.”

She took off into the darkness, back in the direction she’d run from. She couldn’t leave Gideon and Fabian here. They deserved so much better than that. The shadows closed around her, but she imagined the baby’s heartbeat, persistent and unyielding.

_We are alive,_ she thought for the second time that day.

She wondered how much longer that would be true.


End file.
